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What laptop is right for you? Mac, PC, or a Chromebook?

When you go to purchase a new laptop, you might heavily weigh your options, do research into the specific type of computers that you’re looking at, and even read a post very similar to this one. I’m going to come at this article being as unbiased as I possibly can, and I hope it helps someone. So, let’s dive right into this.

Reasons to buy a MacBook:

One of the main reasons to buy a MacBook isn’t for the “cool” factor, it’s for the hardware integration alongside the software. Since Apple makes both the MacBook hardware, and they preload it with their own operating system, Mac OS X, things tend to work quite seamlessly. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying Windows laptop makers out there aren’t seamless, I’ll get into that in the PC section. If you’re a person that is just starting to enter college, and needs certain Apple-proprietary applications for some classes such as Final Cut Pro, Logic Pro, etc, then I highly recommend you buy a MacBook. When it comes to those kinds of tasks if you’re going to delve quite deeply into the apps, I would recommend a MacBook Pro over a MacBook Air. The current MacBook Air (2013, as of this writing) is more than capable of handling those apps, but when it comes down to just $100 more for the base MacBook Pro, you’re getting 500GB of storage (on a traditional hard drive) compared to 128GB of storage on the base MacBook Air (13″), although it’s Flash storage on the Air making it a tad faster. I personally have the 2013 MacBook Air and it’s perfect for my needs, but it varies per person. One final thing: You can also either Dual-Boot Windows 7 or 8 on your MacBook, or install XP-8 in a virtual machine such as Parallels, VMWare, or Virtual Box so you get the best of both worlds.

Reasons to buy a PC

If you’re someone who doesn’t quite want to spend all that money on a MacBook (or you just flat out don’t like the ecosystem, which that’s your choice and I respect it), and wants a powerful laptop for word editing, Photoshop, and other programs, as well as for more intensive gaming, then a PC is for you. There are several PCs out there that match the performance of a MacBook for a cheaper cost. My recommendation for an absolute wonderful Windows laptop at an amazing price would have to be the Dell Inspiron 15, the $399 model. Bump it up to $499, and you can get a touchscreen built right in for the full Windows 8 experience. That’s quite a steal for a Windows laptop, and Dell in my personal opinion has some of the best built Windows laptops you can buy at a great cost. If you’re someone who wants the Windows 8 experience but touchscreen-only, I’d recommend the Surface 2. It’s running Windows 8 RT, which is essentially built specifically for that tablet, although I think there are some others out there. It’s perfect for someone wanting a capable tablet that can run Microsoft Office, browse the web, etc. The only drawback is the storage is 32GB for the base model, but that’s not a problem if you use cloud storage.

Reasons to buy a Chromebook

The number one reason to buy a Chromebook would have to be if you’re always around wireless internet, you want something for basic web browsing and document editing, and want something really affordable. The best bang for your buck for the Chromebook laptops would be the HP Chromebook, it’s just $279. For those who have never heard of a Chromebook, it’s based on Google Chrome, but integrated into a laptop capable environment. For your document editing, including Powerpoint, Excel, and Word-like functionality, is Google Docs (now called Google Drive). When you buy one, you get 100GB of online storage through Google Drive for 2 whole years to store practically any file you would want to. It’s also a wonderful solution for a traveler that again is always around wireless and wants the basic functions of the internet at their fingertips.

Wrap-up.

I hope this article has helped clarify the differences between all three major options out there when it comes to looking for a new computer. In the end, it all comes down to what would suit you the best and what you prefer. I’ve tried to be as unbiased as I could be with this, and hopefully I succeeded. Thanks for reading, and have a great day ^.^